The Life

June/ Dennis McNett

admin — Mon, 12 May 2008 00:55:10 +0000

June will definately be one to not sleep on because Dennis is coming all the way from Brooklyn, NY to show some of his completely amazing wood-block prints, sculpture, and ephemera. You may have caught a whiff of his work on Anti-hero decks or Vans shoes but this show will be a full-scale blast of his art. See you there.

Joby Barron

admin — Tue, 06 May 2008 02:25:32 +0000

First Thursday Skate Jam

admin — Tue, 06 May 2008 01:59:07 +0000

First Thursdays Cal Skate Jam was a blast, many heads were shreddin until well after sundown. Good vibes and way high end ripping. Thanks to everyone who showed up and special thanks to Eric Wilson, Ryan Burns, Ryan Bodiroga, and Tyler Cole for painting/designing the ramps. Also, Howard Weiner, Paul Fujita and Brennan from Vans for being essential to making it happen and Ashley Montegue for keeping the sounds tight on our end. Lets do it again soon! If you want to check some flicks of the action check Earth Patrol for some of Rich Burton’s excellent coverage.

May 1st/ New Show

admin — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 20:15:43 +0000

Joby Barron
“Memories of Television”
featuring musical performance by
The Empty Hotel Room
Opens May 1st @ 6:30PM

Closing Party/ April

admin — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:43:38 +0000

We’re having a closing party for Christina and Ryan on Saturday, April 26th @ 7pm. Come on through and check out the show. If your one of the folks who bought a piece, you can pick it up. If your somebody who just wanted to, well, its your last chance. See you there.

Ryan Bodiroga/ Christina Gyulafia

admin — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 17:00:49 +0000

This is a really great survey of recent works by these two. Ryans paintings act as a direct interface with doubts, anxieties, and inner realities of modern life. Some kind of solace is offered by the tight and beautifully lettered thought-forms that float through, impose themselves, get buried…. Mr. Bodiroga is On Some S**t, and this latest group is the best one yet.
Christina offers a beautifully painted series of many small, intimate oil paintings of friends, snapshots, nature studies, allegorical still lives, and more, painted with a loving hand and wry humor. For contrast there is one larger painting, with a contemporary theme, that seemed to amuse the opening night crowds and also give something to think about.
Thanks to both of these amazing artists, and dont miss this show.

April Show

admin — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 03:38:18 +0000

April is going to be a double-hitter with two great painters who are bringing their newest work, emerging from the depths of winter. Christina Gyulafia and Ryan Bodiroga will be sharing the gallery and from what Ive seen its looks to be a real progression for both of them and a challenging and captivating show for us viewers. Cant wait.

Keith Rosson

admin — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 07:31:24 +0000

THE GUY:
Born in Ashdown, Arkansas. Formative years spent in the Pacific Northwest. Education at Cornish College of the Arts and Portland State University, with occasional residencies at the School of Hard Knocks. Involved with and passionate about punk rock for over half his life.
Legally blind, simply cannot drink liquor, bearer of plenty of bad tattoos, wholeheartedly believes that art can literally save one’s ass.

THE WORK:
Winged, mustachioed pickles that lament the dismantling of kindness in the world.
Fields of rabbits wearing gasmasks and germsuits.
Fathers and sons playing catch with human skulls.
Death wielding a sombrero and a forty-ounce. _
With a heavy nod to comic book culture and a cut-and-paste punk aesthetic, Keith Rosson’s paintings are simultaneously droll and incendiary; he tackles emotional, universal themes with a dark, tongue-in-cheek gallows humor. Bright, text-heavy and immediately recognizable, Rosson’s acrylic paintings often utilize secondary elements that include ink, correction fluid, bullets, teeth, nails, switchblades and cell phones and has led one critic to claim that, “(Rosson) continues putting out the finest graphic novels distilled into paintings in the Pacific Northwest.”

THE BLAH BLAH BLAH:
Keith Rosson has participated in nearly three dozen solo and group exhibitions in the past five years, including a solo exhibit at The Life Gallery in Portland, Oregon, inclusion in Washington DC’s Art Whino Gallery’s monthly roster of artists, and Insights, an annual juried group exhibition held in San Francisco’s City Hall. He was recently one of twelve Portland artists included in the art book Invision, published by Another Sky Press, and will have a solo exhibition at Art Whino Gallery in 2008. He is also a freelance illustrator/ designer, having done posters, shirts and record covers for bands such as Lucero, Against Me!. Don Caballero, Interpol, Hot Cross and more.___
Rosson is currently somewhere in the gallery, and possibly intoxicated. Feel free to chat him up about X-acto knives, fonts, bad tattoos, bottles versus cans, guitar picks and the creeping fear that things will, inevitably, end badly.

Sara Siestreem

admin — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 08:10:53 +0000

Sara is a Portland native who just returned from grad school in New York. She is showing a large group of mixed-media works on paper that are all from the same body of work as her thesis. From deeply personal to basically formal, this work shows an artist who is expanding her range and delineating the territory of her personal language. Her show is certainly one that rewards a thoughtful consideration of the multiple layers of marks and meaning.

Holiday Hiatus

admin — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 20:43:54 +0000

Happy holidays everyone. The gallery is now closed for the holidays so we can get the eggnog goin. We will re-open for February with a solo show by recent Pratt MFA recipient Sara Siestreem, who got her degree and split NYC for Portland and is having her first show of new work here at TheLife. We will continue to post events and interesting stuff throughout the next month and a half so be sure to check in. Be sure to get into your sketchbook or drums or whatever for awhile if it all gets to be too much. Peace.